Welcome to Monday and what I've learned so far...

Angus at his specialist ELC, Daphne St, Prospect

Life has been so busy lately that this poor little blog has become pretty neglected. Life can be very inconvenient! It's taken me several months to navigate new routines -- and hang on to my sanity -- while speeding my way up a very steep learning curve.

Let me fill you in.

Last year my youngest, Angus, was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 2, and early this year my daughter Tas, 4, was also diagnosed with an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) -- Aspergers. Five years ago I was heavily pregnant with my first child, and (naiively) thought life was hectic and full then - with a fulltime high school teaching job and a new mortgage. I wonder what I might have thought or done differently,  if I'd known what was ahead? I'm afraid I was one of those girls who had a very romanticised and rosy image of motherhood - picture a slow, quiet life, with cookies baking in the oven, a little herb garden by the back door, endless time to craft and sew and renovate, and play with the children in the backyard.

Ha!

After battling a long and painful recovery after the first birth, a rather drawn-out period of post-natal depression, and loneliness as a new mum, financial struggles with two (interstate) step-children to support, the death of my dear Dad, family issues and living with a very challenging toddler and new baby, it's been a hard road. But the good thing is, I've come out the other side and there have been many blessings.

I've learned how to control my stress during the day when I'm in "fight or flight mode" so I'm not so worn out by the evening.
I've learned that I can be free in any situation by closing my eyes and praying (or meditating or just thinking happy thoughts and visualising a calm place).
I've learned to breathe.
I've learned that I can fit exercise into my routine.
I've learned that I don't need to comfort eat in the evening to relax.
I've learned that scrapbooking is the best hobby ever.
I've learned that I have very cute kids.
I've learned that I really dig photography.
I've learned that there are some AMAZING mums out there.
I've learned that it's a marathon not a sprint.
I've learned to not tolerate the intolerable.
I've learned that I have the same number of hours in the day as everyone else.
I've learned that I need 8 hours of sleep every night.
I've learned that strangers who look "creepy" or "weird" usually aren't. Just different. (It's a lingering stereotype. Society still wants to label people with learning disabilities / disorders negatively).
I've learned that I have to be the change that I want to see in the world.
I've learned that a surprising large number of people know next to nothing about autism.
I've learned that it is okay - necessary - to have time for myself several times every week.
I've learned how to be an ABA therapist / early childhood teacher / psychologist / speech therapist / legal advocate and occupational therapist for my children.
I've learned that I can limit our schedule to no more than one appointment a day and that it's ok to say NO.
I've learned that it's OK to keep the school holidays appointment-free.
I've learned that the slow cooker is the best kitchen appliance ever invented.

plus I have an amazing husband...but I already knew that! Have a great day...I plan to :-)

Scrap pages to share

Hello!

I have been away from the blog for a while. A bit swept away by the busyness of the everyday, each day so tightly scheduled. I've been thinking a lot about how I might get more 'balance' in to each day. There are soooooo many things that need to be done, then there are things that I would LIKE to do, and there's the issue of eating well, sleeping well, exercising.

How do you fit it all in each and every day?

This week I've decided to break my habit of flopping on the couch and just watching tv in the evening when the kids are in bed, when I could be reading or having a bath, or scrapbooking.

So far, so good!

Here are some layouts I finished recently but haven't shown on the blog, yet. These first two were for Stuck!? Sketches in the month of April:

and this one was made for a March Stuck?! Sketch...

I have been inspired to create some new things recently that I'm looking forward to sharing here as I go. Here's what floated my boat on Pinterest recently:

Bread...

source: Budget Bytes via Pinterest

Soup...

source Lulu the Baker, via Pinterest

Great winter recipes!

I've pinned well over 1000 items on Pinterest now. I know! But I've gradually started to actually make things based on what's inspired me. I used to do a lot of cooking before having children, but have really struggled to find the time for it. I've started making some new things based on recipe pins.

Last week an opportunity arose ... it was Anzac Day, DH had the car, and the kids were home so I decided it was as good a time as any to make bread. I've always wanted to try making my own bread. This one is gluten free, which we're experimenting with (children with autism are thought to benefit from gluten free diets, but it's really only based on anecdotal evidence). Here's the result:

I'm very proud of this effort, considering it was my first time! I used a Basco bread mix from the shops, and it contained tapioca flour, maize flour and rice flour. The kids weren't keen on it but Ian and I liked it, and it's the first time I've even liked a gluten free bread. The texture was similar to a scone. The trick is to cool it quickly when it comes out of the oven to avoid the glugginess.

I made a chicken soup for dinner tonight in the slow cooker with a whole chicken and a fresh packet of 'soup mix vegetables' from the shops. I haven't got a photo of it, but trust me, it was great!

Are you inspired to try new recipes for winter?

Kraft It Up! April challenge

Here's a great challenge if you love kraft as much as I do:

~APRIL'S CHALLENGE ~

This month KIU wants you to use Kraft CS or PP as your base and we want to see another THREE kraft items on your layout. These can be anything as long as they are KRAFT, everything is else is up to you!!! You have until 11th May for this challenge, so there's heaps of time!

Here is my layout. You may notice a bit of a theme emerging lately - ME! I think we should all do more layouts about ourselves.

Canvas play

I made a very simple little canvas as a farewell pressie today. A butterfly stencil repeated 8 times, using texture paste smeared on to the stencil with a palette knife, a little clear embossed hand written note in the corner and a little glimmer mist over the top to finish.

Quick and easy, that's how I roll!

Stuck?! Sketch is up

I had such fun with this sketch - when I saw the circle I just knew it had to be twine ;-))

I've been caught with tonsillitis again so I've gone a bit quiet here on the blog.

I'll be back with bells on when I'm feeling better.

Hugs xox

P.s. to enter your page go to the Stuck?! website www.stucksketches.blogspot.com and check out the lovely goodies you can win :-)

WINNER Imaginarium Designs Giveaway

Hi peeps

Just popping in to announce the winner from my February competition offering $20 worth of fabulous Imaginarium Designs........







Congrats, Paula Perry!!!

Pls PM me your postal address so we can send your goodie pack over ;-))

Kraft It Up - 5,4,3,2,1 challenge

I loved doing the latest challenge at Kraft It Up this month. Here is the criteria in more detail:

This month is a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 challenge and we want to see...

1 Piece of Kraft Cardstock or Patterned Paper
2 Photos of any size
A 3 word title
4 different pieces of patterned paper and
5 different embellishments

** Embellishments can but are not limited to Journal Cards/Tags, Ribbons, Stickers, Die-Cuts, Flowers, Buttons, Twine, Chipboard etc...
*** Feel free to use paints/inks/ mists etc these are not included in the above.

Any questions please email: kraft.it.up@hotmail.com
Entries must be linked no later than 11.59pm March 31st


and here is my take on the challenge:

Kraft cardstock, two photos, three word title, four patterned papers and five embellies. For the latter I went with fabric button / twine / clouds / Typo camera and word stickers. There's actually a lot on the page but it still fits my 'style' if I can call it that... I like a bit of white space on the page.

BTW one of my personal scrappy challenges this year is to use up all my old patterned paper so I have room for some lovely new ones!! I wonder if I will manage it. It'll be fun trying :-))

This photo was taken late last year when I took myself off for a solo retreat to the city. It had been 12 months since my last one, and I'd rather not wait so long for the next! I had three glorious nights to myself, and spent quite a bit of time just chillin' and readin' before I broke out the art supplies.

What do you think about taking solo retreats? Would you go on one, or do you prefer hustle and bustle? Or maybe you don't need to and live somewhere quiet?

I love Stuck?! Sketches

So, this is my exciting news for the week...I'm one of the new CT members at Stuck?! Which means I get to pull out my scrapbooking stash and play with a new sketch twice each month! Which is sooooo good because if you're like me, you sometimes need a little kick to get going :-))

Here is this month's first sketch:

I love to see the different interpretations of one sketch! Mine will be revealed on Monday. Be sure to visit Stuck?! and submit your own page...great prizes to be won.

...and I also get to share my application page with you.

This is a page I really like... it definitely highlights Tasmin's happiness and I love scrapbooking for that. Pages like this help me hold on to the positives.

Materials: Bazzill cardstock, Kaisercraft patterned paper, Glimmer Mist, Memories Mist, Imaginarium chipboard, Judikins Embossing Powder, Tim Holtz artistry stamp, black StazOn ink, Zig writer.

I've had two pages accepted for publication with Scrapbooking Memories magazine too so fingers crossed with those! After my honourable mentions last year, it would be thrilling to have another layout or two published.

A couple of weeks back i was thrilled to bits to receive a Canon Selphy photo printer for my birthday. It was 'regifted' to me from my sister who'd had it virtually unopened still in its box, for three years! It works just fine, printing great images straight from my Canon 550d and the Canon Ixus. I've found that I can transfer photos from my iPhone to the laptop via the Canon Eos software, save on to the memory card, and print to the Selphy from there.

This has very exciting implications for my Project Life album. This year whilst I kept up my photo a day the images were banking up on my iphone unprinted and I was beginning to despair that I would ever "catch up". This project is very important to me, documenting each week, because our life moves so quickly that it's all I can do to hang on to a bit of it and own it.

So I'm slowly catching up and as a way of keeping myself 'regular' I'm going to do an Ali Edwards I think and post my Project Life spread each week.

Tasmin has Aspergers

This is just a quick note to say "hi, I'm back!" How I've missed blogging regularly.  It's 8.07am, I have 23 minutes to get myself, and two children dressed, plus lunches made and get out the door. I've done it before, I can do it again!

Tas had her diagnosis in January and today we are attending her first one-on-one session with a psychologist.

Yes, that's right. We now have two children on the Autism Spectrum.

This morning to begin my New Schedule for a Better and Calmer Life I got up at 5am to go for a walk. Lovely! Then I came into the study to start my first real blog post at 5.30am. Only, as usual, Tasmin (akas The Red Beast) woke up and joined me.

It's been a rough morning.

Stay tuned.

...and I have some scrapbooking to share later today xox

Mail goodies

I love it when little presents arrive in the mail from...myself :-)

The Imaginarium giveaway has closed...winners announced soon. Stay tuned. I have a little exciting announcement coming soon too....

Another Imaginarium Designs scrap page

I got to play with some more of this scrummy chipboard.

Remember you can win a $20 prize pack of Imaginarium Designs chipboard if you are a follower of this blog by leaving a comment on this post http://www.scraphappyvalley.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/win-imaginarium-designs-competition.html?m=1.

And there are more prizes up for grabs over at www.imaginariumdesigns.blogspot.com

Kraft It Up - February is LOVE

I love February - my DH and I both celebrate our birthdays in February plus the anniversary of our very first date - and this year we celebrate 10 years :-))...more coming on this soon.

The challenge this month at Kraft It Up is to incorporate LOVE into your page. It doesn't have to be romantic love, and you can scrap about friends, family, even loved objects and places! You also need to include the colour PINK there somewhere.

For my page, I have used a photo of my sister and I from Christmas and I don't remember the last time a photo was taken of just the two of us. There is usually someone else in the photo, such as children! We both are wearing red and this really symbolises love I think.

I think this page pefectly sums up our sisterly relationship...giggles and good times, and a connection to our shared childhood. I ripped a page from an old novel - so quirky! - and added some wood grain patterned paper, tickets, my home printed masking tape, some jenni bowlin letter stickers and American crafts thickers (inked to match the red and pink colours in the page), some rub on letters, vintage ticket sign, and Martha Stewart butterfly punch (punched from the photo and added back on the page).

And did you notice my latest favourite thing..?? chevron patterned paper! In red, too.

Head over to the Kraft It Up and give this challenge a red pink hot go! There are prizes on offer from Scrap Therapy, Polly Scrap Kits and Greatest View.

****and don't forget****

My $20 Imaginarium Designs chipboard giveaway - open to Australian and international residents until the 13th February. See the previous post for details. All you need to do is be (or become) a follower of this blog and add a comment to that previous post. It's too easy!

WIN!!! Imaginarium Designs competition

I have had the amazing opportunity to be a guest designer this month over at Imaginarium Designs!!! I was given a generous bundle of chipboard to play with and my first project is this colourful - and also useful! - picture book I made for Angus.

Pictures and photos are an amazing learning tool for children with autism and I'm so pleased with how this turned out. I can't wait to make more.

You can see more of my mini book on the Imaginarium Designs blog.

And now..... An exciting competition!

Do you love chipboard as much as I do? It's a must have for scrap bookers and memory keepers. Titles, flourishes, frames and more designs than you can imagine! I love embossing with it but the possibilities are endless.

Thanks to Imaginarium Designs i have $20 worth of Imaginarium Designs chipboard to give away to! I KNOW.... cool!

I'm making it really easy to win. All you have to do is become a follower of this blog (unless you already are!) and leave a comment on this post telling me what you would do with the chipboard if you win! You have until midnight on Monday 13th February 2012 (Adelaide or AEST).

The main prize is open to Australian residents only but I have a smaller pack for one lucky international reader.

Also, to increase your chances of winning some of this fantastic chipboard make sure you visit the ID blog at www.imaginariumdesigns.blogspot.com

Sending you all lots of bloggy love xxx p.s. thanks for all the wonderful comments I've been receiving. If I haven't replied to you yet I will soon I promise ;-))

Project Life

I have been doing my own version of Becky Higgins / Ali Edwards Project Life for two years now and I love it as much now as when I first started.

I got behind for the first time in November though I continued to take lots of photos! I managed to get the photos printed earlier this month and I'm playing catchup this morning while Angus is at ELC today.

The photos are in the pages now but there are gaps to fill from missing photos, ephemera, date blocks and journalling. So here I am in a cafe BY MYSELF this morning having a ball! I LOVE this project.

I use an American Crafts ring binder
Album, and just stick the photos on the included paper inserts. I play with the photos in Photoshop first and often add the journalling right on the photo.

I have just bought some new page
protectors that fit 6 x 6x4 landscape photos and now I'm finding this easier quicker and more flexible than glueing. Should make this year's albums lighter too.

Where do you keep your photos?

Have you heard of Jean-Michel Basquiat?

Well I hadn't until tonight when I saw a documentary made about his life. At 20, he was a subversive living rough on the streets of New York, by 25 he was a millionaire and by 27 he was dead! I think he died of a broken heart. He first became famous for his art, then he became famous for being famous, then he became famous for being infamous.

He left behind more than 1000 paintings and more than 1000 drawings. He was criticised at the time but now, more than 20 years later, he is considered a genius of the 20th century. I think this piece Toxic is pretty cool. What do you think?

I like that he stayed true to his style of art.

My word for 2012

I started thinking about my word for 2012 back in October. I knew there was a perfect word out there somewhere, but i couldn't think what it was. I spent a bit of time looking at blogs, and Pinterest, and felt that my word for 2011, COMPLETE was perhaps still the best word.

I like complete because it has a double meaning for me - 1. that I am already complete regardless of what happens or what I do (like 'gratitude') and 2. I had (and STILL have) an enormous bundle of projects to be completed. Things like the children's baby albums, Mum's heritage childhood album, my album, Ian's album, and even my photos from my mine and my sister's childhood. Phew. The list goes on and on. But one night in November, or even December, I was sitting on the couch and it came to me. DELIBERATE.

Deliberate! I like that word. I really like it. I thought a bit deeper about why I had all these projects in the first place, and why I was having trouble completing them. I've been inspired by some well known crafters like Ali and Karen who, to me, seem to choose their projects very deliberately. Karen, for example, gets through a huge number of projects just on a weekly basis. She does this by deciding carefully what's important to her, then makes time for it. Her hours are all carefully scheduled.

My habit, by contrast, has been to make excuses. Lots of excuses. Usually I tell myself I'm too tired in the evening, and flop in front of the TV instead. I also get overwhelmed by all the projects surrounding me in my tiny study, which has been really messy much of this year, and can't decide what to do.

So.

This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to have a really really good think about what I want to do this year. Then I'm going to make it into a list, post it on the blog, and approach each one leisurely, slowly and evenly, steadily, unhurried, DELIBERATELY. And when I complete a project, I'm going to celebrate it before going on to the next thing.

I'm really looking forward to posting my list.

And I think I'll start with a list of completed projects from last year to remind myself that I did make some pretty cool stuff.

What's your word for 2012?

Kraft It Up January

It feels good to be starting the new year afresh, doesn't it? I love the idea of new beginnings, goals, and the determination all this encourages.

This month's challenge at Kraft It Up is UP on their site, and oh goodie, it's a colour challenge!! The range of layouts by the creative team is amazing. You have to go see. Click here.

Here is the colour combo and you can use some or all of the colours:

I had to use all of them:

I've been a bit unwell since Christmas unfortunately so my time in the scrap room is pretty limited at the moment. I have so many ideas of things I want to do, but i'll just have to be patient for now! Luckily I have Pinterest to keep me busy.

Hope your New Year is turning out to be fantastic.

Honourable mentions

The unthinkable has happened... Two honourable mentions in SBM mag. Wow!!! And now Tasmin is famous!

Kraft it Up - December

This month's theme is lovely - Christmas traditions. I love Christmas and two of my favourite things are giving gifts and the Christmas tree. My layout is based on my favourite photo from last Christmas, of Tasmin delighting in handing out presents. It's a tradition of Ian's family that the children hand out the gifts. I hope it demonstrates the joy of giving.

There are lots of cool scrappy product prizes up for grab. All you have to do is link up your page to Kraft It Up. Have a shot!

My top ten favourite layouts 2011 -- featuring chipboard

Actually, woops, that was 11. Were you counting?

I have shared these scrappy layouts to support my application for a DT spot on the Imaginarium Designs team. How cool would that be? I adore chipboard. One of my fave pieces is their intricate little butterfly - they come in big sizes too but I love the miniature version. How are these tiny chipboard pieces cut with so much fine detail?

Did you spot the butterfly chippie in one of the above pages?

I've enjoyed putting together this little collection of favourite pages. What were your favourite pages from 2011?